No tax increase, fewer students

The California State University system will reduce enrollment by up to 25,000 students in fall 2013 if Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed tax increases are not approved by voters in November, officials said Monday.

Reducing enrollment is the key part of the 417,000-student system’s plan to deal with $200 million in cuts that will be triggered without the tax increases.

If the cuts are imposed, San Diego State University, with an undergraduate population of 31,000, will enroll 300 to 500 fewer students, a spokesman said. At California State University San Marcos, with 10,300 undergraduates, enrollment will be reduced by approximately 500, a spokeswoman said.

In a conference call with reporters Monday, CSU Vice Chancellor Robert Turnage said the system also will close enrollment for the spring 2013 term at all but eight campuses, and spring admission to those campuses will be granted only to certain community college transfer students.

SDSU and CSUSM already were not going to have spring admissions because they are full.

Turnage said CSU will tell all applicants for fall 2013 that they will be “wait listed” when the application period closes Nov. 30, because officials cannot be certain when they will be able to give students “a definitive answer” on acceptance.

“We are being upfront with people who are applying and letting them know we are facing a very uncertain situation,” he said.

If the tax measures pass in November, CSU’s budget will remain essentially flat with the current year, which is $750 million lower than the 2010-11 academic year because of reduced state funding.

Brown recently merged his proposal with a tax initiative proposed by the California Federation of Teachers. The measure still calls for a sales tax increase, though one smaller than the governor originally proposed, and seeks more revenue from those in upper incomes, particularly millionaires.

Turnage said the CSU system has to have a plan in place to deal with the uncertainty of the election outcome.

“If the CSU waits to see what happens in the election before reacting, then it will be too late,” he said.

He said reducing enrollment is the only practical solution to deal with the potential budget cuts.

“It comes down to either revenue or spending,” he said, adding that the system, which has raised tuition steadily over the past few years, has no plans to ask for additional increases.

Current CSU tuition is $5,472 annually, about double the $2,772 it cost to attend in 2007-08. An increase approved in November will take the total to $5,970 in fall 2012. Students and others around the state have protested the increases.

“I think it’s pretty clear that the tolerance around the state, the enthusiasm for fee increases, is not there,” Turnage said.

CSU’s governing board will be briefed on the enrollment reductions and other issues related to the trigger cuts at its regular meeting today in Long Beach. But Chancellor Charles Reed does not need board approval to implement the cuts, which he has already conveyed to campus presidents.